A pair of interesting papers about the effects of wolves: 1) killing wolves may be more expensive than just paying the ranchers for losses; and 2) the presence of wolves helps the pronghorn population. The latter article doesn't give the pronghorn numbers for Yellowstone, but I remember that some years back there was a great deal of concern about a pinkeye epidemic in a rather small population.
Assuming these studies hold up to close analysis, I have to say that it's always fun to see how convoluted and counterintuitive the real world can be. If there's anything to be learned from science (!), it's that you should always be suspicious of what you think you know.
Monday, March 3, 2008
More studies about wolves
Labels:
nature,
science,
Yellowstone
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1 comment:
The ranchers quoted in the article mentioned in your prior link commented on how hard it is to kill wolves. So maybe they're right! Maybe we should avoid the trouble and expense.
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